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Much of Lionel's earlier life is likely the same as Earth-1, with two major difference that altered the events of his life from Earth-1. First was that instead of sending Tess Mercer to an orphanage, he instead opted to raise her alongside his son Lex Luthor. The second is that in 1989 meteor shower that rained down on the town of Smallville, Kansas, Lionel was the one who finds baby Kal-El in the field instead of the Kents. He raised Lex, Tess and Clark together training each of them to be his heir and pitting them against one another in the hopes that one of them would prove a worthy successor to his empire. His primary hope however was that Clark, due to his alien powers, would prove the most worthy. Due to Lionel's treatment of his children, each of them turned out different. Tess for example proved the most rebellious, and at sometime in her life she was cut off by Lionel. Behind his back, she also started a relationship with her adopted brother Clark. Clark meanwhile took on a more dotting son role in regards to Lionel, being groomed and trained by the older man. However in truth, Clark secretly hated his adoptive father and wanted nothing more than to get out from under his control and kill as many people as possible to do it. Not much is known about Lex meanwhile, save that he and Clark became heated enemies to the point that Lex branded Clark with the family crest on his arm. In retaliation, Clark murdered Lex with Lionel's approval. Lionel used Clark's powers to forge a new empire, in which they took control of Metropolis, turning it into a dark and depressing city. In order to accomplish his evil goals, Clark took on the identity of Ultraman, much to Lionel's approval, feeling a secret identity would allow him to get away with his destructive desires and keep the family name unharmed.

When the Earth-1 Clark Kent accidentally switched places with his Earth-2 Counterpart using the Mirror box he finds himself greeted by Lionel who has not been killed by Lex. Suspicious, Clark discovers that Lionel was the one who raised him, and was grooming him to be his heir. Not wishing to stay in Earth-2, Clark gained the help of the Earth-2 Tess. Agreeing to help, Tess snuck into Lionel's office so as to get a hold of Doctor Swann's journal, and more importantly the information regarding the Mirror Box. She is interrupted however by Lionel who realizes quickly what Tess is up to, and has her arrested by his guards, claiming that she was not a worthy heir to the Luthor name. Tess gets a parting shot at Lionel and slaps him before being dragged away. Attempting to use other means to get back home, Clark goes to the Fortress of Solitude in the hopes of getting help from Jor-El. He was shocked to find the Fortress has been integrated with Earth technology and more important to Lionel waiting for him. Lionel states that he caught Tess trying to locate the mirror box, which was odd as he had done all he could to destroy any Kryptonian artifacts. Clark lies and claims he asked Tess to help in order to destroy the box, and Lionel then claims that Oliver Queen has the box.

This is revealed to be a lie, and Lionel himself had the Mirror Box. He had instead wanted to locate Oliver and to discover if Clark was going to betray him as he once assumed. Lionel stops Oliver from killing Clark using kryptonite rays and a gun, but then instead of helping Clark, Lionel says that he has failed him as a father and that if he was a true Luthor he would have killed Lionel by now and Lionel blames himself. Lionel starts to beat Clark with his belt as he rants about how only the strong survive, and how he will be the strongest in this earth, or any other. At this point Oliver realizes that Clark is the "good one" and turns off the kryptonite. Clark tells Oliver to turn on the kryptonite again when Clark Luthor returns, and assures Oliver that in the other world they do save the world together (something that Alternate Oliver had talked about earlier). Clark grabbed the mirror box and activated it, while in the background Lionel runs towards him. Lionel apparently made it into Earth-1 along with Clark. While purchasing a newspaper about the Blur, a vendor asks Lionel if he has seen him before. Lionel states that he was merely visiting from out of town unexpectedly. Guessing that he made it back in the nick of time, Lionel says he would not want to miss how it all turns out for the world before walking into a crowd.

Lionel researched everything to find out more about his Earth-1 counterpart, his daughter Tess Mercer, and his "son" Alexander Luthor. When Tess was walking to her office, Lionel was sitting there waiting for her. He reached out to her, to be the father that she needed and be there for Alexander. He intended on finding Alexander before Tess did and do right by him. Lionel managed to find Alexander in Suicide Slums, staying in an old apartment. He realized that it was him who attacked Martha Kent in order to kill Clark. Lionel managed to take back LuthorCorp and returned Alexander to LuthorCorp; Oliver Queen and later Martha confronted him about his actions. When Alexander found out that Lionel still favored Clark over him in the other world, he decided to do away with both his father and Martha. After Lionel was saved by Clark, Lionel watched the Luthor Mansion burned to the ground.

For weeks, Lionel remained in control of LuthorCorp. Lionel went to Cadmus Labs, finding Tess there as well. He vowed that he would have his "son" Alexander, but Tess showed him Alexander's "remains". In the end, Lionel discovered she was lying by using the remains of another Lex clone and went to find his "son". Lionel realized Alexander was now called Conner Kent, had changed his hair and developed Kryptonian abilities like Clark, and actually had Clark's DNA as well as Lex's. He reached out to Conner, to remind him of his past as he gave him a red kryptonite ring. Lionel then took Conner to a captured Lois Lane who was going through his files in his office about being the "fake" Lionel Luthor. Before he could put an end to Lois by shooting her, Conner whisked her away. He realized that the red kryptonite made Conner more excited in his infatuation with Lois, and then continued to track Conner to back to the Luthor Mansion where he had to subdue Clark Kent with Kryptonite. He went there to try to remind Conner about the fact he is still a Luthor, but Conner remained to be on Clark's side.

Returning to his empire, Lionel was eventually thrown out by Tess who regained control of the company and started tracking him of every step he makes. Late at night, Lionel paid his respects at Lex's gravesite. As he was leaving, Lionel was approached by Darkseid. When Clark Luthor used the mirror box to travel to Earth-1 he set out to find Lionel to have his revenge for everything that had been done to him during his life. It was discovered that Tess had the ability to track Lionel's movements through technology available at Watchtower and she diverted Clark before he could kill Lionel, only for Clark to attempt to kill Tess for her betrayal.

Later, Lionel discovered that there was a clone who was created from the perfect parts of many many clones, but this clone lacked a heart. For this he thought t use Conner heart, but could not find him so he turned his sight toward Tess. However, Tess escaped and shot Lionel who in his dying moments made his way to Lex. In that moment Darkseid appeared to him again and its revealed that he offered immortality to Lionel who declined his offer. Darkseid tell Lionel that he might want to reconsider his offer which Lionel reject the offer once again saying that he never intended to live for ever and that there is one life he cares about and ask for Darkseid to let Lex live which Darkseid agreed on. Darkseid fulfil his part by ripping out the heart of Lionel and put into Lex. Darkseid possess the body of Lionel and use it to fight Clark, but Clark managed to defeat Darkseid and destroy the body of Lionel.

Notes

Lionel Luthor from Earth-2 was portrayed by John Glover who also portrayed Lionel Luthor from Earth-1.

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Footnotes

This character is or was primarily an enemy of Superman in any of his various incarnations, or members of the Superman Family. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Superman Villains category."